Your Dark Star reference reminds me of strong SF memory. Back in high
school all of us wargamers would get together in the library in the
mornings to resolve the previous night's PBS (Play By School) orders--at
various times I had four, five, or six different games set up in my
bedroom at the same time: Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz, Mech War '77, some
SPI Frederick the Great game, a couple others I can't think of. I remember
one morning I had heard a commercial on the radio the night before, with
weird sound effects in it, followed by the narrator saying, things like,
"Don't worry, that's just the sound of the Death Star blowing up a
planet." It seemed like it must be an ad for a SF movie, so I asked the
guys, "hey, does anyone know about a new SF movie coming out that this
would be the ad for?" Everyone just looked at me blankly and finally Eric
Walters, who would go on to become a Marine officer said, "No, you're just
confused. You're just thinking about Dark Star."
That was probably the last time in history that a Star Wars reference
would elicit mute shrugs, and also the last time anyone would ever confuse
it with Dark Star.
It's similar to an old BBC recording of Led Zeppelin on Old Grey Whistle
Test, I think, of probably the first time Zep played Stairway to Heaven
live. You can hear there is a live audience, and then the opening notes of
Stairway start playing, and the familiar tune keeps going, but IN SILENCE,
because the audience has never heard it before. Last time in history that
ever happened too.
> Dear Folks -
>
> Eamon wrote:
>>One thing has occurred to me: if the TK effect is non-Newtonian, then the
> TKer could use their TK to transfer momentum to themselves:
>>
>>Move a big enough piece of debris (and a non-jagged piece to boot).
> Accelerate it towards them - momentum transfer. When knees feel up to it
> again, repeat the process. Kind of like a Psi Project Orion...
>
> Why be so strict? Allow them to use it as a surfboard!
>
> (_Dark Star_ and the Silver Surfer^TM both come to mind.)
>
> In one game I was running, Ervmisbe the Droyne (in Efate orbit) hatched a
> cunning plan to teleport to a Zho cruiser (also in orbit) to attach a
> small
> nuke to its hull. After a bit of "gunboat diplomacy" (and one less Zho
> cruiser), the remaining Zhos in the squadron allowed the PC's (and the
> remnants of a Marine task force) to depart in a requisitioned transport.
> That was back in the early 90's, and the guys still chuckle about it.
>
> Of course, being a Droyne he had Psi-15. Otherwise, you do realise how
> self-limiting psionics in Traveller psionics normally is? It's not like
> the
> _Compleat Psionics Handbook_ for D&D. You can't turn your arm into a
> mithril
> sword, for example.
>
> A psion usually doesn't have enough "juice" to do much harm (or doesn't
> dare
> to, depending on milieu); why dampen their creativity when they do come up
> with a great idea?
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw
> "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
>
>
school all of us wargamers would get together in the library in the
mornings to resolve the previous night's PBS (Play By School) orders--at
various times I had four, five, or six different games set up in my
bedroom at the same time: Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz, Mech War '77, some
SPI Frederick the Great game, a couple others I can't think of. I remember
one morning I had heard a commercial on the radio the night before, with
weird sound effects in it, followed by the narrator saying, things like,
"Don't worry, that's just the sound of the Death Star blowing up a
planet." It seemed like it must be an ad for a SF movie, so I asked the
guys, "hey, does anyone know about a new SF movie coming out that this
would be the ad for?" Everyone just looked at me blankly and finally Eric
Walters, who would go on to become a Marine officer said, "No, you're just
confused. You're just thinking about Dark Star."
That was probably the last time in history that a Star Wars reference
would elicit mute shrugs, and also the last time anyone would ever confuse
it with Dark Star.
It's similar to an old BBC recording of Led Zeppelin on Old Grey Whistle
Test, I think, of probably the first time Zep played Stairway to Heaven
live. You can hear there is a live audience, and then the opening notes of
Stairway start playing, and the familiar tune keeps going, but IN SILENCE,
because the audience has never heard it before. Last time in history that
ever happened too.
> Dear Folks -
>
> Eamon wrote:
>>One thing has occurred to me: if the TK effect is non-Newtonian, then the
> TKer could use their TK to transfer momentum to themselves:
>>
>>Move a big enough piece of debris (and a non-jagged piece to boot).
> Accelerate it towards them - momentum transfer. When knees feel up to it
> again, repeat the process. Kind of like a Psi Project Orion...
>
> Why be so strict? Allow them to use it as a surfboard!
>
> (_Dark Star_ and the Silver Surfer^TM both come to mind.)
>
> In one game I was running, Ervmisbe the Droyne (in Efate orbit) hatched a
> cunning plan to teleport to a Zho cruiser (also in orbit) to attach a
> small
> nuke to its hull. After a bit of "gunboat diplomacy" (and one less Zho
> cruiser), the remaining Zhos in the squadron allowed the PC's (and the
> remnants of a Marine task force) to depart in a requisitioned transport.
> That was back in the early 90's, and the guys still chuckle about it.
>
> Of course, being a Droyne he had Psi-15. Otherwise, you do realise how
> self-limiting psionics in Traveller psionics normally is? It's not like
> the
> _Compleat Psionics Handbook_ for D&D. You can't turn your arm into a
> mithril
> sword, for example.
>
> A psion usually doesn't have enough "juice" to do much harm (or doesn't
> dare
> to, depending on milieu); why dampen their creativity when they do come up
> with a great idea?
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw
> "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
>
>